Okra & Cocoa

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

In most parts of Africa, we are so blessed with fruits and vegetables that juicing seems to be the most natural thing for us to do. Natural fruit juices are good healthwise because of the high concentration of nutrients, vitamins and enzymes you receive. Making my own juice allows me to avoid the colorants, added sugar, preservatives that seem to populate the supermarket shelves.

This entry will be less of a recipe and more of a general guideline. The reason is that fresh fruits are natural products with taste and sugar levels that vary depending on the time of year or even where they are cultivated. Therefore you have to follow your own taste buds in order to make your own mixtures. I often start my day with a carrot-orange cocktail with a dash of ginger. I also often make a natural hibiscus flower drink called bissap or zobo. I wrote about it a while back.

Mixing fruit cocktailsAfter all that hard work peeling, cutting, juicing, blending, now comes the fun part where I encourage you to come up with your own concoctions.I recommend using 2 parts of the sweeter juice to 1 part of the less sweet one. I found that the following mixtures tasted good from the juices I made today:

Ginger Pineapple

Carrot Pineapple

Carrot Orange Ginger

Pineapple Orange Papaya

The iterations are many so juice away and do share any good mixtures you happen upon in your explorations. I can't wait for mango season!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Warning to the brave: Banga Soup is labor intensive. It takes time as well.But as Nigella says: "So much is written about the need to reduce the time we must spend cooking, it's as if the kitchen were a hateful place, almost an unsafe place, and that it must be only reasonable for us to avoid it. I love food, I adore being in the kitchen and I am happy to cook"

There is no avoiding the kitchen if you wish to make banga soup from scratch. The many steps required to wash, boil and pound the palm kernels are just the beginning. One must then separate the flesh of the kernel from the oil, make stock before arriving at the final destination: the amalgamation into a delicious soup.

Palm Kernels

Banga SoupFor 4 to 6 peopleIngredients

400 g fresh palm kernels

300 g beef cubes

1 large onion, chopped

1 large piece of dry fish

2 peppers, chopped finely

Salt to taste

Preparation Stock

Bring 1 l of water to boil

Add meat, dry fish, pepper and salt

Lower the fire and simmer for about 30 mns (more if the meat you are using is tough)

Banga

Bring 1.5 l of water to boil

Add the palm kernels and boil until soft. This will take 1 hr or more.

Sieve the kernels, throw the water away

Put kernels in a mortar and mash with a pestle in a circular motion to remove skin and flesh from the kernels. A large black seed will emerge as the flesh and fibers give way. This can be a bit of a workout.

Remove the kernel mush from the mortar and add boiling water ( about 1 l). Use a wooden spoon to stir vigorously to make sure all flesh and oil have mixed with the water. Once it cools down a bit, you can use your hand. It is more effective.

Sieve the mixture into a pot and put the liquid back on the stove. Bring to boil, lower heat to simmer for 20 mns.

At this point, you can take this sauce and pour directly into the pot holding the stock. Simmer for 10 mns until the soup thickens a bit OR

Alternate ending: You can reduce the fat content by removing the oil that has gathered atop your sauce. You have just made some palm oil, by the way. The remaining sauce can now be poured into the stock pot. Simmer for 10 mns until the soup thickens a bit.

Welcome

Okra & Cocoa is about cooking and eating in contemporary Africa. Join us in our celebration of the delicious fruits of our fertile soil, as we embrace our mothers' recipes and create our own.I especially relish the dishes I ate growing up in Senegal, the ones I discovered living in South Africa and Nigeria and the ones I have sampled in my travels.